U.S. Pat. No. 4,093,235 granted Jun. 6, 1978 describes a board game apparatus intended to educate players with respect to tourist attractions found in various geographical localities. The board game apparatus of the patent is intended to provide for the enjoyment of the players and to educate the players with respect to the particular geographical localities with which the game deals. The embodiment of the patent deals with geographical localities in the State of Florida, but the invention is intended to be applicable to many other localities, e.g., Ireland, the Caribbean, South America, Canada, other states of the United States, etc.
The game of the patent includes a game board having a series of marked areas constituting a path extending about the board, each of the marked areas representing a particular geographical locality of a region illustrated by a map outline in the central area of the board. Each of the areas is appropriately marked to indicate whether the particular locality represented by it is accessible by boat and/or by airplane conveyances. All of the localities are accessible by automobile. It is as to various tourist attractions found within the particular geographical localities represented by the marked areas with which the game is concerned. Each player is provided with a set of tokens, each set preferably comprising an automobile, a boat and an airplane. In playing the game, each player moves each one of his set of automobile, boat and airplane tokens around the board in succession, i.e., a player first moves around the board by automobile, then by boat and, finally, by airplane. In doing so, the automobile token may occupy any of the designated areas while the boat and airplane tokens may occupy only those areas designated as being accessible by boat and airplane, respectively.
One feature of the game is that players may purchase certain of the designated localities and charge rental to opposing players who land there. After purchase, a player may improve his property by constructing buildings thereon to raise the rental fees to be exacted from opposing players. Another feature of the game is to obtain rewards by successfully answering questions relating to tourist attractions within the particular localities on the game board.
In the game of the patent each player is provided with a full set of tokens each representing a type of conveyance, that is, one representing an auto, another an airplane and a third a boat. These tokens are shown as being of the same shape as the conveyance that is being represented and are made, for example, of die cast plastic or metal. The tokens are relatively small and present problems in that they can be broken or lost. Also, they are somewhat costly in that molds must be made for each. In addition players whose dexterity is impaired, for example, people suffering from arthritis and similar disease, have a problem in manipulating the tokens.